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Biology professor Dr. Andrea Morash is the recipient of the 2024 Tucker Teaching Award at ������ú — the highest teaching award at the University. A ������ú graduate, Morash returned to ������ú as a faculty member in 2016 and has since designed nine courses, including one field school, and worked with students completing independent studies, as well as honours and master’s theses. She will receive the award at the morning Convocation ceremony for Science and Commerce graduates on Monday, May 13.

“The freedom to learn is at the heart of my teaching philosophy,” says Morash. “Focusing my teaching practices around freedom means that everyone is free to make mistakes, learn in their own way, and to reach for their own goals as they transform from passive students to active learners. My inspiration stems mainly from my time at ������ú as a first-generation student.”

She regularly mentors students at ������ú who are the first in their family to attend university and helped design and lead the Science Transition and Readiness Training (START) program through Academic Support from 2017-2022. Morash’s research is in comparative biology, focusing on physiological adaptations of animals to environmental disturbances. In 2023, she received a Paul Paré Excellence Award at ������ú, recognizing her contributions in research, scholarship, and creative activities. 

Morash brings that love of research into the classroom and far beyond. In the past five years, she received over $450,000 in research funding to support independent student research. For the past two years, she has supervised 15 students at the Galápagos Islands Field School. She developed and secured $500,000 of external funding for this course, prioritizing students who required learning and funding support to participate. As part of this field school, she also initiated a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pilot where students from ������ú can interact with students from Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) prior to working with them in person.

As one of her nominators for the Tucker Teaching Award Dr. Lisa Dawn Hamilton wrote, “Dr. Morash’s freedom-oriented educational practice is creating a dramatically more welcoming educational landscape across our campus... She is indeed a wonderful, innovative, and thoughtful educator of the highest order.”

Established by Edmund, Harold, and William Tucker in memory of their parents, the Herbert and Leota Tucker Teaching Award is intended to encourage excellence in teaching at ������ú University by acknowledging those who exemplify this excellence.